1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telephone including an image phone, a picture phone, a web phone, a web video phone and an Internet communication phone. In particular, the present invention relates to a telephone with a cantilever beam type cradle and a handset cradled thereon.
2. Related Art
Normally, what “a phone” indicates is a wire telephone including either a phone in a general sense for telecommunicating with another person or a key-phone, using a curl cord that connects a handset to a main body. Such handset is equipped with a transmitting portion (hereafter: transmitter) at a lower end of the handset and a receiving portion (hereafter: receiver) at an upper end of the handset. The main body of the phone is equipped with a cradle for the transmitter and a cradle for the receiver. See for example, U.S. Pat. No., Des. 348,265 to Albert L. Nagele entitled Secure Telephone Cradle. Also, the cradle for the receiver has an on/off hook switch, which takes either side depending on whether the handset is back to its position or not. See for example U.S. Pat. No. Des. 280,617 to Hiroshi Inaba entitled Telephone Set. Sometimes, the cradle for the receiver has a hanger also.
Recently, an Internet communication using a telephone has been chiefly made. Thus, it is easy to find Internet telephones anywhere, such as, “data processing telephones,” “image telephones” or “Internet communication telephones”. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 328,076 to Natsuki Hagiwara entitled Telephone Set Having Data Processing Function, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 402,977 to Ronald Leroy Lytel entitled Telephone Base; and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 398,302 to Cheng Lio entitled Video Telephone.
FIG. 1 illustrates one of the typical Internet communication telephones in the related art. As shown in FIG. 1, the main body 100 of the telephone for Internet communication has a wide LCD housing 102 in which a wide LCD 102a is installed. And, a plurality of button keys 104 are arrayed below the wide LCD 102a. Here, the wide LCD 102a is used as a data output means, and the button keys are used as a data input means. On the left side of the wide LCD 102a, there is a cradle where the handset 110 is cradled. The cradle includes two caved-in spaces 106 and 108 for the receiver 112 and the transmitter 114 of the handset 110 to be cradled, respectively.
The wide LCD 102a rotates at a designated angle around a hinge axis A. Hence, after inputting data simply by pressing the buttons with a finger during the Internet communication, a user can check the data displayed in a comfortable position. In addition, a weight balance W is installed on behalf of the weight balance of the handset 110 and a more precise on/off function of the hook switch 109. Since the operating method of the hook switch 109 of the telephone is well known to those skilled in the art, it is not described here in detail.
A number of the users of the aforementioned Internet communication telephone, however, confess that it was often uncomfortable to pick up the handset from the cradle. In other words, the Internet communication telephone requires by its nature a wider LCD screen, but when such LCD is installed, it becomes more difficult for the user to pick up the handset avoiding the wide LCD. Trying not to touch the LCD in any way, he or she soon realizes that it is very uncomfortable to pick up the handset without actually contacting the LCD. In reality, the LCD window is almost always interfered with by a hand of the user, and the screen of the LCD naturally gets dirty. Unfortunately, the LCD of a web phone has been enlarged every year in accordance with the development of Internet environment. Therefore, the structural problem of the Internet telephone is something to be solved in the long run.
As for another problem, when the handset is put on the cradle, the unstable handset due to the wide LCD makes the on/off operation of the hook switch unstable as well. Especially, the problem occurs as the handset moves from the left to the right side, and has a negative effect on the on/off operation of the hook switch, consequently deteriorating the reliability of the Internet telephone in overall.
There are a number of different designs for cradles to hold a handset, as illustrated by the above mentioned patents and as illustrated in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. Des. 278,813 to Donald M. Genaro et al. entitled Housing For A Telephone Stand Or Similar Article, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 301,474 to Minoru Hotsumi et al. entitled Cradle For A Portable Radio Telephone Set, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 354,287 to Masaru Tokiyama entitled Telephone Handset Holder; and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 359,283 to Tomek Rudkiewicz entitled Cradle And Mobile Telephone Handset.